Shelby's move to Eight-Man not as easy as it looks

(NOTE: The interviews in this story were conducted prior to the Great Falls Central-Shelby game.)

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Coyotes' standout talks with the Tribune.
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SHELBY – It seems only fitting that a team who finished as runner up in last year’s Class B state football championship would qualify for the Class C Eight-Man state playoffs.

The Shelby Coyotes are fitting that description quite well, after handing Great Falls Central their first loss with a 34-0 thrashing here Friday night.

With just 115 students, Shelby High School fell within the Montana High School Association’s threshold of Class C Eight-Man football: a maximum of 130 enrolled students, with a minimum of 65. Any count lower than 140 students can petition to be dropped to C-8.

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Shelby head coach Mike White(Photo: TRIBUNE/LEE VERNOY)

Making the switch to Eight-Man ball from 11-Man isn’t as easy as reading a playbook. It took a little work in the offseason.

“We went to a big camp down in Bozeman during the summer, and that was big for us,” Coyote senior RB/K/S Wyatt Brusven said during a taping of the greatfalltribune.com weekly series ‘WALK THE TALK’ earlier in the week. “It was a camp for Eight-Man and Six-Man players, and it was fun to play in that.

“Then just studying films of Eight-Man games, and all the different schemes and things we can do from it.”

Brusven said the Eight-Man game is a lot different from traditional 11-Man football.

“We weren’t expecting (to be dropped to Class C), but when we heard the news, we liked it,” Brusven said. “It’s definitely a different game, but it’s good for us.

“We pretty much run the same offense, so it’s not all that different.”

Shelby head coach and athletic director Mike White credits his crew for being able to learn the game as quickly as they did.

“I don’t know if anything is ever easy,” White said. “I think they’re smart kids, and they’ve been around the game, and they understood that it’s football at the end of it all.

“But even into this week, we’re still learning. We’re still learning things in and out, and some little idiosyncrasies, but it’s good. It’s a new thing for them; a smaller, shorter field, but they’ve adapted well and at the end of it all they’ve been running the ball and tackling well, and that’s just what we look for.”

Both the Coyotes, now 7-0, and the Mustangs (7-1) are taking a week off to heal up and get ready for the state Class C playoffs, which will begin Saturday, Oct. 27. Both teams will have home games in the first round.

Lee Vernoy is the Tribune’s Prep Sports Writer. Follow him on Twitter at @GFTrib_LVernoy. Phone (406) 791-6569, or email lvernoy@greatfallstribune.com.